This has got to be the silliest sentence I’ve ever read.
Psycho Pirate “The Silver Age” came out about two years ago. It appeared in a number of different books rather than a single series. I keep hoping they’ll come out with a TPB but I doubt it.
I know the origin of the silver age Bottle City of Kandor. What is the origin of the current Kandor?
Is there a good web site for buying recent back issues?
**
Nah, Superboy is vunerable to magic, Kryptonite, etc. Ultraboy wasn’t. QED: Ultraboy is more invulnerable than Superboy.
Don’t blame me, blame Mort Weisinger.
And if you really want a silly sentence, I shall now try to write a one sentence summary of one of the plotlines of the Steve Gerber Defenders:
Kyle (Nighthawk) Richmond was captured by the Headmen so his brain could be removed from his body (and dumped into a bowl filled with liquid) and Chondu the Mystic’s brain put in its place, but Dr Strange found out after the fact and put Valkyrie’s body’s husband’s (Jack Norris’s) mind in Chondu’s brain (which, remember, was in Nighthawk’s body) displacing Chondu’s mind into Bambi’s (a fawn that Hulk adopted) brain, but the issue of where Bambi’s mind (such as it was) went was never resolved.
(Hint: For the purposes of that sentence, Brain=Hardware, Mind=Software).
Fenris
oof… and I though Spock’s Brain was bad.
Actually, it was one of the all-time great periods for the Defenders. As silly as it sounds in summary, the story was such rollicking good fun with snappy dialogue that clipped along at such a quick pace that you couldn’t help but to enjoy it.
And Gerber’s characterization of Hulk as a badly disfunctional Superbaby was creepy, touching and cool.
Fenris
The current Kandor is a “city” full of people imprisoned by an energy being named Kolos. The city isn’t in a glass bottle, but exists in a sub-spacial dimension inside a force field that makes it visible in normal space, but it appears tiny.
Kolos could possess anybody and use their powers, and could draw one person at a time out of the city to possess them. When he would withdraw from a body it would phase back into the city.
Superman encountered him for the first time when he was put on trial by a group called the Intergalactic Tribunal for the “crimes of his forefathers,” against Krypton. (His ancestor Kem-L created the Eradicator which in turn altered Kryptonian DNA, so that if anybody left the planet they would die. Jor-El learned about the alteration and was able to reverse it in Kal-El while the baby was in his gestation matrix. [artificial womb-that’s how babies were born on Krypton, rather than in a cabbage patch, and it was the gestation matrix which Jor-El attached to a hyperspace drive and sent to Earth. Technically, Superman was born when the matrix opened after arriving on earth, so he’s a naturalized citizen.] The Tribunal was a fascist organization that ran around enforcing their idea of law even if they weren’t recognized as an authority and had no real jurisdiction, such as on Krypton, which is of course, a dead world.)
Kolos tried to possess him but Superman escaped. Kolos later tracked him to Earth and almost trapped him in Kandor, but of course, Superman beat him and took responsibility for the “bottle city.”
Damn! Forgot to preview!
I can help too.
Thanks for the info. I picked up the Sliver Age mini-series written by Mark Waid, and really enjoyed it. However, what I meant was that I would like a nice prestige format sequel to the Golden Age miniseries that came out several years ago. We probably won’t get it, but it would be nice.
It’s a one-shot:
http://www.newsarama.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=2&t=000079
–Cliffy
eBay. If you’re looking for individual issues, try www.milehighcomics.com or www.mycomicshop.com – Mile High has a better selection, I think, but the prices are relatively high and the customer service is sometimes awful.
Of course, the best way to get recent back issues at a relatively good price is by going into your local comics store – most of them will sell an issue for cover price for several months after it comes out, and most comics from DC, Image, CrossGen, Dark Horse, and Oni Press can be reordered for months after their original release by your retailer. (Not Marvel, though.)
–Cliffy
I got the guys name wrong. It’s Tolos, not Kolos.
Hanging my head in shame.
Is there anybody more powerful or annoying, (in a non cosmic entity sort of way), than Impossible Man? He can’t be killed or hurt AFAIK. He created a wife and several kids just so he won’t be lonely. He can breathe and travel in space. He can become any object with his little head popping out of inappropriate places. The only thing I’m not sure of is size limitations of his transformation. That and he can only be green or purple.
Mr. Mxyzptlk is pretty annoying, at least to Superman. He is more of a nuisance than anything. But he comes from the 5th dimension, so he can pretty much do ANYTHING he wants. The only way to get him to leave is to make him say his name backwards (or, for a while, paint his face blue). Weird, huh?
As far as the Marvel universe, I can’t imagine Galactus or any of the more powerful guys (think Thanos, especially with the Infinity Guantlet) having that much of a problem with Impossible Man, although they might fall under “cosmic entity” status. I don’t know much about the character, but he sounds like a mix between Plastic Man and the aforementioned 5th dimensional imp, Mr. Mxyzptlk.
For a good read, check out World’s Funniest, in which Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-mite (think Mxyzptlk, but instead he annoys Batman) fight eachother to see if Batman or Superman is better. Pretty hilarious.
Psycho Pirate 
A mix of Mr. Mxyzptlk and Plastic Man would be a good description. Switching between forms he goes pop, but still has incredible flexibility in various forms. He also seems to be able to teleport The only time I’ve seen him was a Marvel annual type of one shot from the early 90’s. It’s meant to be a humor book with Impossible Man being essentially a child.
What’s this? Whatcha doing Spider-Man? Can I help? Can I? What happens when I hit this really big red button? I’m bored. Let’s play a game. I don’t care that such and such villan is attacking, I want to play with you Wonder Man.
And so on.
Psycho-Pirate:
Spoken like someone who never read Fantastic Four # 175. Galactus ate Impy’s home planet, and apparently the nature of the inhabitants (like Impy himself) gave Galactus a case of “cosmic indigestion.” Yes, that’s a quote.
Chaim Mattis Keller
Guilty as charged. I must admit that Marvel (especially early Marvel) is not my strong suit. I hereby submit myself to one blast from the Ultimate Nullifier.
Cosmic indigestion? Hilarious! And I thought DC’s Silver Age books were pretty silly.
Psycho Pirate
I was one of the handful of ppl bought Defenders, because it got so strange. My theory is that it was the outlet for Marvel being experimental (or maybe just mental). Marvel brought them back recently, but voila the big hand of editorialship came crashing down to reinvent them and increase sales, and lo and behold they disappeared again.
I remember the evil fawn story. The first page showed the fawn glowering into a crystal ball, plotting its bloodthirsty revenge. The next few pages followed its progress as it tried to escape the room it was in by pulling the door handle with its scowling mouth, but falling on its ass and failing. The Defenders set the standard for mainstream weirdness in its heyday.
As an FYI, apparently an unavoidable result of Cosmic Indigestion is to turn one into a giant disembodied space-brain. Until the next writer needed Galactus, whereupon he got better. And de-brained…or re-bodied.
Fenris
Ah yes, the Defenders. Only Marvel team (at the time, anyway) low enough on fresh blood that they’d take on Gargoyle as a permanent member.
Here’s a question:
Did any comic book ever really show Superman changing in a phone booth? If not, then what is the origin of that cliche?